Repainting a holiday let between bookings

How long to block out: a day or two per room

Block out a day or two for each room you want painted, or five to ten working days for a whole house. Those are our usual painting times. Add a spare day at the end so the cleaner can get through and you can take a last look before the next check-in.

Dulux gives Wash&Wear Low Sheen a 2-hour recoat time, so both coats can usually go on the same day. Prep is what stretches a job. Dulux recommends a primer on patched or repaired areas, on stains and mould, and when you're covering a dark or strong colour. A furnished unit also takes longer than an empty one, because every bed and couch gets moved and covered first. So send us the free dates with your room list. We'll tell you which rooms fit the gap and which should wait for the next one.

Dry in 30 minutes, fully washable in about a week

New paint is ready for guests well before it's ready for a scrub. Dulux says Wash&Wear Low Sheen is touch dry in 30 minutes. It also says paint can take around a full week in normal weather to develop full washability. That first week is the risky part in a holiday let, because a changeover clean happens before every new guest.

Pass these notes on to your cleaner or letting manager for the week after the painters leave:

• Spot-clean marks on new walls with warm water and a little mild detergent. That's what Dulux says to use on low sheen and matt walls.
• Keep rough abrasives, stiff scrubbing brushes, solvent cleaners and harsh caustic products off the walls. Dulux warns against each of them on those finishes.
• Store the leftover paint somewhere the cleaner can find it. Dulux suggests keeping it for touch-ups and as a record of the exact colour.
• If a guest leaves a mark you can't shift gently, leave it. A touch-up after the week is better than a scrubbed patch.

Bathrooms and laundries: clean off the mould before any paint

Mould has to be killed and cleaned off before a holiday-let bathroom gets repainted. Bathrooms and laundries are the damp rooms in any unit, and Dulux's directions for its kitchen and bathroom paint start with treating the mould, then the paint goes on.

1. Kill the mould. Dulux names Selleys Rapid Mould Killer, or a scrub with a scouring pad and one part bleach to three parts water.
2. Leave the solution on for 15 minutes, then wash it off with clean water and wipe dry. Stubborn patches can take more than one go.
3. Prime the stained or mould-affected areas, as Dulux recommends.
4. Finish with a paint made for damp rooms, such as Dulux Wash&Wear +PLUS Kitchen&Bathroom Low Sheen.

Dulux says that paint has a mould inhibitor and water-repellent properties, and it carries a 10-year guarantee against mould growth. The full conditions are on the label. In our online estimate, mould, cracks, dings or water damage add a flat $300 to $1,500, because that prep is the same work at any finish level. See our interior painting page for the steps we follow in each room.

Wipe-clean walls and semi-gloss trims where guests leave marks

Use a washable low sheen on the walls and semi-gloss on doors, frames and skirtings. That's how we set up rentals and busy family homes, since semi-gloss trims stand up to hard wiping. Dulux says a wet cloth takes most everyday marks and scuffs off Wash&Wear Low Sheen, and it suits hallways and other busy walls.

Dulux also describes Wash&Wear Low Sheen as low odour and low VOC. That helps when the next guests arrive soon after the painters leave. Keep the colour scheme short, too. One white through the whole place means any scuff can be fixed from one tin. Our guide to low sheen and semi gloss covers which sheen goes where.

What it costs: priced like any other interior job

A holiday-let repaint costs the same as any interior job of that size. Here are the ranges from our online estimate for a standard repaint, including GST.

A furnished let will usually need the furniture add-on unless you or your manager clear the rooms first. Painting only the rooms that need it makes the job shorter as well as cheaper, which also makes it easier to fit into a gap. Our interior painting cost guide breaks the numbers down by bedroom count and finish level.

Tax: an interior repaint can count as maintenance

Repainting faded or damaged walls is on the ATO's list of maintenance jobs. On a rental, maintenance is claimed in the income year you pay for it. A holiday home has extra rules on top, so check your own case with a registered tax agent before you count on a deduction. Here's what the ATO's pages say:

• You can claim ownership costs, such as repairs and maintenance, on a holiday home only if it's used or held for use mainly to earn rent. The ATO weighs things like your own use and whether it's on offer in school holidays and other busy times.
• If you stay there yourself for part of the year, your expenses get split to take that into account.
• Fixing damage that was already there when you bought the place is an initial repair. That's capital, so it isn't claimed straight away.
• If you paint it yourself, you can claim the materials but not the value of your own time.

Ask for an itemised invoice if a job mixes repairs with upgrades. In one ATO example, an owner claimed the inside repaint as a repair and the outside render and paint as capital works, because the painter's invoice split them.

Owners who live away and units in a body corporate

You don't need to be there while your holiday let is painted. In Noosa Heads, 37.6% of private homes were empty on census night in 2021, against 9.3% across Queensland. The census doesn't say why. It does show how many places there have nobody home on a given night. For Noosa jobs, tell us who holds the keys and we'll collect them from that person. We send you photos of each room before we start and again when we finish. See our Noosa painting page for the suburbs we cover there.

In a unit block, check the building's rules before you book. Queensland body corporate by-laws let a body corporate control things like common property. Ask the manager about lift bookings and where trades can park. If the body corporate is repainting the shared areas too, that's a separate job, covered on our body corporate painting page. For every other town, see the suburbs we cover.